Bengaluru IMA ponzi scam: Company founder Mansoor Khan arrested at Delhi airport

New Delhi: Mohammed Mansoor Khan, founder of IMA Jewels and managing director of the company, was arrested at Delhi airport on Friday (July 19). IMA is accused of multi-crore scam in Bengaluru.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested I Monetary Advisory (IMA) group founder Khan at New Delhi airport early Friday morning. Khan has been taken to the ED office for further questioning.

Karnataka Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) head and joint commissioner of police (crime) BR Ravikanthe Gowda said, “We tracked Mansoor Khan in Dubai and arranged for his return to India. Our team members will take custody of him in Delhi.”

"Once we tracked him down, our sources convinced him to surrender himself. He arrived at New Delhi at 1.55 am," Gowda added.

Khan has been accused of running a ‘halal’ ponzi scheme – where the money is rotated from new investors to older investors – in the name of I Monetary Advisory (IMA).

He fled India around June 13, when the scam surfaced, and investigators believe he was hiding  in Dubai.

Khan has been accused of cheating over 40,000 investors to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore. In a video he published on Monday, he had said that he was unwell and that he would be returning to India within 24 hours.

"I will be coming to India in 24 hours, on my will. I have full faith in the Indian judiciary," he had said.

Till date, SIT has arrested 20 people, including IAS officer and former Bengaluru urban deputy commissioner Vijay Shankar (IAS), assistant commissioner of the Bengaluru revenue department LC Nagaraj, BDA executive engineer Kumar, Bengaluru city corporator Syed Mujahid, one religious preacher and village accountant Manjunath. Others include the 12 directors of IMA.

Umair Shariff, a 42-year-old “social activist” is the latest one to be arrested from Bengaluru. He was arrested for propagating IMA in exchange for cash and a van.

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